Call for rural health to be part of review

Increased funding for palliative care and for training more rural doctors and nurses, as well as more money to provide medical services to accommodate booming tourism numbers, are all things Dalton Kelly would like to see included as part of the new review of health services.

The Government announced a comprehensive review of health and disability services last week.

As chief executive of the New Zealand Rural General Practice Network, Mr Kelly is happy to put his hand up to sit on the review board to ensure rural health is included in the review, but membership will not be announced for another couple of months.

The review’s report will be finalised in about 2020.

”That is a long way down the track and there is a lot of work to be done to get there,” Mr Kelly said.

He said one of the issues was the pressure increased tourism numbers could put on general practices and he wanted that as one of the focuses in the review.

Rural townships which were ”gateways to national parks or water activities” or had inexperienced drivers of mobile homes on its roads, had an increased potential for accidents.

If there was an emergency, doctors might not be able to attend as they were likely to be too busy and under pressure dealing with other patients.